The Sugarcoated Language Of White Fragility

[oberliner]

White Fragility

“White Fragility” is the newest of these terms, and I chose to frame this piece around it because while it’s new and flashy, it’s not so sweet. It positions whiteness as weak and lacking instead of “privileged” or “supreme” while acknowledging the damage and violence this “fragility” has the power to cause.

To explain why she came up with this new term, Dr. DiAngelo said:

I think we get tired of certain terms. What I do used to be called “diversity training,” then “cultural competency” and now, “anti-racism.” These terms are really useful for periods of time, but then they get coopted, and people build all this baggage around them, and you have to come up with new terms or else people won’t engage. And I think “white privilege” has reached that point. It rocked my world when I first really got it, when I came across Peggy McIntosh. It’s a really powerful start for people. But unfortunately it’s been played so much now that it turns people off.

This so perfectly describes the “we see the medicine coming, so the sweetness loses its power” phenomenon. But while I think the term “White Fragility” is less sweet than some of the former terms, I’m not letting it off the hook. It is still a term invented by a White person for other White people, and it has quite a hefty dose of innocence built into it. What things are fragile? Newborn babies, fine china, snowflakes. Fragile things are usually valuable, and they need protection. Here we go again.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/anna-kegler/the-sugarcoated-language-of-white-fragility_b_10909350.html

[NCTraveler]

1. The original piece from Robin DiAngelo.

https://robindiangelo.com/2014site/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/White-Fragility-Published.-1.pdf

[George II]

10. So this goes way back to 2011, not even the 2016 Huffington Post article.

I wonder why this is now being posted years later if not to be ........................

[NCTraveler]

13. With respect to your topic line...

Yes, that seems to be the case.

[YessirAtsaFact]

2. Can we please put all this divisive nonsense on hold?

Until after November and the Democrats control the house?

Now is not the time for scab picking

Other topics I’d rather not see right now

The wonders of Bernie Sanders

The wonders of Hilary

Wypipo

The threads turn into food fights

[kwassa]

8. This is DU.

What did you expect?

[ExciteBike66]

3. I don't see the problem here

If someone wants to use the "older" terms to try to convince us white folks to be less discriminatory, more power to them.

If someone (yes, even a white person) wants to invent new terms in order to do the same thing, more power to them.

Dr. DiAngelo using her new-fangled terms is not going to somehow impinge on the author's ability to use the term "racism".

Perhaps a "shotgun" approach will be more effective over time.

[George II]

4. ""White Fragility" is the newest of these terms"?

You had to go way back to July 2016, almost two years ago, to come up with this "newest of these terms"?

Maybe I'm dense, but I just don't see the point of posting this here, now, in May 2018.

[JustAnotherGen]

5. To be divisive

And to play right into the hands of 'Russian trolls'.

[George II]

9. It certainly wasn't posted to engage in a back and forth discussion. Lots of "back", no "forth".

[NurseJackie]

12. "Lots of "back", no "forth"." --- PERFECT!

Lots of "back", no "forth".

PERFECT!

[JustAnotherGen]

6. Did you want to have her

Banned at DU too since MrScorpio is doing some excellent posts with this term and her quoted in them?

I mean - if that happened then you could shut up/shut down MrScorpio writing those OPs right?

You really really need to post ALL of your thoughts on this in Ask The Admin.

I would be rather interested in their response.

Like - maybe they will like - totally make it so racism in the context of white supremacy which IS the Black American Experience (how we experience America whether newcomers or descendants of slaves) - can NEVER be discussed at DU until we run it by oberliner to make sure he is personally not offended OR that any discussions ALWAYS reference FIRST the trials and tribulations of black supremacy in America and how from pre-natal to the grave it is detrimental to white Americans.

I don't know . . . Can I kick it?

[kwassa]

7. This is the essence of white fragility.

from the article:

Dr. Robin DiAngelo, a White critical racial and social justice educator who created the term “White Fragility,” breaks it down like this:

White people in North America live in a social environment that protects and insulates them from race-based stress. This insulated environment of racial protection builds white expectations for racial comfort while at the same time lowering the ability to tolerate racial stress, leading to what I refer to as White Fragility. White Fragility is a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves include the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium.

[NurseJackie]

14. "White Fragility is a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable..."

White Fragility is a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves.

Nicely worded and explained. I'm almost certain that there are many who will find even THAT to be offensive and threatening.

[ismnotwasm]

15. We need terms.

Quite frankly I don’t give a fuck what they are, we need them to describe the state of racial inequities. White people are always going to be uncomfortable with them, or roll their eyes at them. The author makes interesting points, but the simple truth is our language lacks enough terms. From privilege to wipipo, all of them describe a state of whiteness that we cannot confront without the language to do so.